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Saturday was the annual Equitable Alumni Meeting. Normally we have it on a Wednesday night, but this time we decided to try a Saturday noon event, since none of us are getting younger, and invited non-E spouses to join us, for the sake of those don’t like to drive alone. A lot of funny stories, as usual. One fellow told us about a kidnapping threat he received, when he was told they were holding his pregnant wife for ransom. Much derring-do with the FBI, and money bags stuffed with newspaper.

Palm Sunday was our annual scramble. For the last five or six years, Resurrection has joined the Roman Catholic church in meeting on the Presbyterian parking lot for the blessing of the palms and the traditional All Glory, Laud, and Honor. Because our service is at 10:00 and both of the others meet at 11:00, we compromise on 10:30. Of course, there is always somebody who forgets completely, or arrives just as we are leaving, and all that good stuff, but it is nice to worship together in God’s great outdoors.

One of the members of Good Shepherd brought a miniature donkey, and everybody got their photo taken. I don’t know the name of the new minister there, but this is Rev. Kim and me deciding we didn’t want to ride into Jerusalem or anyplace else on Jack. I tried to convince her I was too tall, but she was short enough to do it. Obviously, she didn’t buy that theory.

And then, in the afternoon, The Squire invited me on a date. Really. No particular reason. Nice!

We went to a lovely Nepali restaurant for dinner, and then to the movies. We both like real Indian food – not Americanized stuff – and this was the real McCoy. The waitress asked how spicy I wanted my food, suggesting one to ten, with five being medium. I opted for six – and lived to regret it. Six is D— hot, thank you very much!

And then we went to see La, La Land. It was a very good movie, and we both enjoyed it. It didn’t turn out the way we thought it would, but that made it even better.

Running late. If I don’t get this stuff on-line before 8:00, it shows up as the next day, but trust me, it’s Sunday. A very confusing Sunday.

Some time ago, the three local churches – Presbyterian, Roman, and Episcopal – had decided to have an ecumenical Palm Sunday “opening” at the Presbyterian church, since it is the most centrally located. Our services begin at 10:00, but the other two don’t start until 11:00, so this event was scheduled for 10:45, to give folks time to get back “home”.

The details were announced in church last Sunday, but folks forget, and a lot of people come to Palm Sunday and Easter who don’t normally attend every week, and even those who heard the announcement probably didn’t all remember it. There was a large write-up in the newsletter, but unfortunately, the rector did not get his article to me until Saturday morning. I had the thing on-line before noon, but that didn’t give the congregation time to “read, learn and inwardly digest” before they went to bed.

So we had some people coming in at 9:45 as usual, and none to happy about having to wait an hour, but willing to ride over to Good Shepherd to see how this was going to work. Considering that is was a bit nippier than expected for this time of year, and the service was outside, we had a fair turnout. (I’m the redhead in the alb, “straight down the middle”, and no, I did not plan it that way.) The three clergy read portions of the service, the Presbyterian minister, who has a fabulous voice, lead us in All Glory, Laud, and Honor, and we dispersed to our home parishes.

Because of the crowd, we had planned on two Chalicists, myself and the white haired gentleman standing next to me, but we discovered the Altar Guild had only put out one cup. Trying to do signals to get somebody to go to the sacristy, which is in the back of the church, to get the other chalice, short of waving our arms and yelling “yoo, hoo”, but finally Ken just backed off and let me do it by myself. When the head of the Altar Guild came up for Communion she whispered to me, “Did you need something?” “Yes – another chalice.” “Oh. Well. Too late now.” Hmmm.